Irish Grain Farmers Accuse Merchants Of Price Fixing
Irish farmers have accused merchants of taking advantage of the atrocious harvest conditions in order to slash grain prices with levels as low as EUR130/t being offered for barley in the southeast.
The break-even figure for wheat and barley growers is estimated to be in the region of EUR155/t for the current harvest.
IFA grain committee chairman Colum McDonnell has claimed that merchants were acting in concert to undermine the market.
He said a number of key independent players in the sector had been working behind the scenes to persuade merchants to cut grain prices.
Presumably the IFA hasn't got access to the internet and isn't aware that London futures prices aren't £200/tonne anymore?
Or that the entire northern hemisphere is awash with feed grain?
Or are they just smarting that they held on when they should have sold, only to find lo & behold that they haven't got gold dust sitting in the barn, just high moisture feed wheat desperately in need of a dryer?
Don't you just love these boys, prices go to £200/tonne & they're still not happy!
Irish farmers protest against barley prices
Irish Times -- Farmers handed out free cans of Guinness in Dublin yesterday to protest over the price they receive for malting barley, a crop they say they will not grow again unless they get higher prices for doing so.
Irish Farmers' Association president Pádraig Walshe said Guinness had argued it does not buy grain from farmers but from the maltsters, Greencore Malt.
"But the fact is that 95 per cent of our malt is purchased by Guinness and I am telling them now that unless we get the same price as last year, €205 per tonne, farmers will not grow the crop next year," he said.
"The price on offer to growers of €165 a tonne is jeopardising future supplies. Given the scale of the increase in their input costs, growers must maintain a margin or they will not produce a crop.
"If Guinness want to keep the Irish harp on the pint of stout, they will have to pay a realistic price to Irish malting barley growers, and Diageo and Greencore Malt cannot continue to take growers for granted," he said.
As the 300 protesting farmers handed out cans of Guinness to the public, Mr Walshe said he wanted to get the message across that farmers received just over one cent for each pint of the brew.
"Every year Guinness put 2-3 per cent on the price of a pint. Last March they added an additional 3.5 per cent to the pint and before the year is out they are adding a further 2 per cent," he claimed.
IFA grain chairman Colum McDonnell said the justification used by Diageo, which manufactures Guinness, for increasing the price of a pint higher raw material costs. "Yet their main supplier Greencore Malt is cutting the price paid to malting barley growers by over 20 per cent," he said.
Mr Walshe said Guinness had prided itself on its worldwide reputation as a premium Irish product and a company with tradition. "Now it is putting malting barley growers out of business," he said.
Over the past 10 years more than 5,000 growers had gone out of the business and the 250,000 tonnes of quality malt required by Guinness were being produced by only 3,000 growers, he added.
"We are not being greedy. We are facing rising costs of over €40 per tonne on fertiliser and oil costs. We are seeking last year's price but I believe if we do not get it, then no farmer will plant the crop next year," he said. Diageo Ireland rejected the IFA claims.
"Diageo does not buy malting barley from growers but purchases finished malt from malting companies. It has no role whatsoever in negotiations regarding the price of malting barley - these are a matter for growers and malting companies.
Delayed Irish harvest may help stocks
(Irish Farmers Journal) -- Broken weather continues to delay the start of the 2008 winter barley harvest with the earliest crops now ripe. It may still be some time before combines get out into fields, with Sunday being the only day to have no rain predicted, according to Met Eireann's forecast in this week's Farmers Journal.
With the European harvest now underway, French barley yields are reported to be good.
Russia also looks set to have a very large harvest (85 to 91 million tonnes of grain predicted), so it would seem that there may be a lot of grain chasing a limited small-grains market this harvest.
It seems likely that we will still have some barley carried over from last harvest, but this is now much less than was originally suggested. Trade sources suggest that this may now be in the order of 60,000 tonnes to 65,000 tonnes, nearly half what was predicted a few months ago.
The delay in harvesting, if it continues, could further eat into these stocks.
Meanwhile, prices tend to be all over the place. Spot prices for barley have improved somewhat at home but lack of demand remains a factor. Futures markets are fluctuating considerably and even maize prices in Chicago have begun to weaken.
Some people in the trade now suggest that €160/t to €165/t for green wheat, with barley €10/t lower.
